The standard TCP/IP based network architecture that is commonly in use today and upon which the Internet is based has been known and used for over 50 years. As modern usage of the Internet has grown, a number of serious problems have arisen which are a direct result of the design of this networking system.
The inherently anonymous, unauthenticated nature of the TCP/IP approach, which provides an IP address to any device desiring to connect, leads directly to a large number of security problems on modern networks. “Spoofing”, “Distributed Denial of Service” and “Man-in-the-Middle” are examples of security vulnerabilities that are well understood by experts in the field to be a constant concern requiring ever-more complicated countermeasures. The simple fact that entities can join a network without proving their identity and trustworthiness, while helpful in promoting the growth of the network, is a profound security weakness.
It is also the case that modern TCP/IP networks are difficult to configure and maintain, requiring great expertise and expense. User passwords, firewalls, subnets, router configurations and SSID all require expertise to properly administer even the smallest home network, and in larger corporate or government networks, the complexity rises exponentially.
It has also been found that high density networks using cellular data services or Wi-Fi, of the type that may be found for example, at an event venue where multiple thousands of people are trying to connect at once, suffer from severe connectivity and performance problems. In such environments, Wi-Fi facilities at the venue cannot handle the number of nodes attempting to connect, and local cell towers quickly become overwhelmed. Distributed networking, or “meshing” can allow traffic to flow among devices in a dynamic and distributed way, avoiding bottlenecks and making better use of available resources. Networks based on TCP/IP are not designed to handle large numbers of devices requiring large bandwidth. As such, distributed networks relying on TCP/IP do not perform as well needed to handle large numbers of devices simultaneously.
To achieve acceptable performance in high density environments using current technology requires a large capital outlay for hardware and network infrastructure. Additionally, the current networking scheme supporting the Internet has some inherent limitations brought about by the way networking has evolved over the last generation. The impetus, therefore, leading to the development of the present invention, was to find ways to improve or replace the current network architecture and protocols to make better use of existing bandwidth and existing infrastructure to improve performance in such environments. Subsequent to the development of solutions to these specific high-density problems, the present invention was expanded to address the security and complexity problems outlined above.